Jamal Crawford made the play of the game on defense, Chris Paul ruled the fourth quarter on offense and it resulted in the Clippers' 101-95 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday at Staples Center.

Crawford stole a lazy pass by Deron Williams and made an uncontested dunk on the other end for a 4-point lead with 48 seconds left. The rest was all Paul, who scored 17 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter.

"A lot of these games we've let get away from us," Paul said. "(Saturday) we found a way to get stops when we needed them."

The Clippers (48-22) are fourth in the Western Conference standings.

Joe Johnson made a shot for the Nets after Crawford's momentum-changing steal and dunk, then Paul drove the lane, got by Williams and made a tough shot in which he fell to the court after a Williams foul. Paul made the free throw as well, surrounded by chants of "MVP" and "CP3!"

But the worst might have come from the Nets point guard Williams, thanks to Crawford's late steal.

"That was big," Paul said. "All the talk about `Mal's offensive ability and stuff like that. I had no clue what was happening. I was (playing defense) and heard the crowd go nuts, and I turned and saw him turn and then dunk.

"That gave us a four-point lead and just enough separation to get the win."

The Clippers don't have to worry about the playoffs, but they do have to worry about how they'll perform once they get there.

And on Saturday, they made the clutch plays.

"That's a nice win for us," Del Negro said. "That team has been playing well. I thought we battled. I thought we made plays down the stretch. Obviously, Chris made some huge plays. We got stops when we needed to.

"The turnovers were an issue a little bit, but overall I thought we battled, we fought and we were determined, especially five five, six minutes to go in the game. I was pleased with that."

Lopez tied the score at 90-90 on an uncontested dunk with 2:30 left. Paul hit a jumper with two minutes left - and with former Clippers teammate Reggie Evans guarding him - for a 92-90 Clippers lead.

Green was the only starter to score in double figures for the Clippers in the first half as the Nets led, 49-47.

Eric Bledsoe returned from a calf injury and played well. In the fourth quarter, he wasn't afraid to get physical in the lane and made a basket and a free throw for the 3-point play after being fouled by C.J. Watson and gave the Clippers an 82-80 lead.

In the third quarter, Lopez and Griffin got tangled up and Lopez appeared to fall on Griffin's knee, but Griffin got up and walked off.

Paul had an injury scare as well in the first quarter when Keith Bogans set a screen and he and Bogans banged knees. Paul came back in the second quarter and then did his thing in the fourth quarter by scoring seven points in the final 22 seconds.

Caron Butler tied the score at 45 with a 3-pointer from the wing and then did his little shimmy, but the Clippers didn't get the lead back until the fourth quarter.

Crawford made a 3-pointer from the baseline for a 21-16 lead with 2:41 left in the first quarter. That was the only 3-pointer for Crawford, who was 1 for 5 through three quarters.

Bledsoe got in the game with 2:08 left in the first quarter and scored on a layup not long after that. He was nursing a calf injury he tried to play through, and the Clippers are hoping the rest has helped.

Also ...

The Clippers had their 36th consecutive sellout this season and 86th in a row overall Matt Barnes, who typically is flying all over the place on the court, nearly collided with Del Negro at the scorer's table but Del Negro got out of the way in time.